REPORT DEPUTY STATE SEALER OF WEIGHTS & MEASURES. I45 



forming of your association here today is opportune in many 

 ways. You have many years of experience that you can draw 

 from for the proper conduct of your work in the future. I 

 wondered aa I Hstened to the remarks here this morning if the 

 sealers themseh'es ever really thought seriously as to the im- 

 portance and the character of the work they are called upon to 

 perform. There is no branch of the public service that touches 

 more closely the elbows of the public each day than the office 

 of sealer of weights and measures. There is no article of food, 

 of clothing or of fuel but musit be meted out equitably by some 

 form of measurement, by some type of weighing or measuring 

 device. Yet in the rendering of this service to the public, how 

 little appreciation follows sometimes, from the very pubHc you 

 are attempting to serve. That is best illustrated by the fact 

 that heretofore in many cities, and perhaps it is largely true in 

 your state at the present time, the incentive is not created at 

 the outset for men such as I see before me to become extremely 

 enthusiastic over the proposition of being sealers of weights 

 and measures. There has not been a uniform attempt made, 

 up to within recent times, to elevate the position of Sicaler of 

 weights and measures to the dignity to which it is justly entitled 

 because of the character and importance of the work that is 

 performed. The position itself must be made attractive to a 

 sealer. The salary has got to be in keeping with the importance 

 of the work he is called upon to perform. You must throw 

 around the safeguards of civil service in order that he may be 

 included within the embracing folds of that all important pro- 

 tection which guarantees faithful and honorable service. That 

 we are astsured can be accomplished and one of the first at- 

 tempts to be made on the part of my good friends, Mr. Con- 

 nelly and his friends, is to secure civil service protection for 

 the sealers of the state of Massachusetts. Generally speaking, 

 the sealers when they start out, without previous experience 

 or training, have an idea that they are called upon to render a 

 peculiar service to the purchasing public and therein they are 

 liable to run into gross error ; for you are not only called upon, 

 as sealers, to render that character of service to the purchasing 

 public, but you are also to protect the honest merchant ; and 

 you are to see to it that no action on the part of the sealer is 

 going to operate in such a manner that it will seriously hamper 

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